Equipment

Battery-Electric Vehicles

True zero-emissions freight transportation is closer to reality than you might think. A California-based technology company called TransPower USA has five Class 8 tractors in service now working out of the Port of Long Beach. Jim Park takes one for a drive in this Focus On... video.

Q&A with Fleet Technology Expo's opening keynote speaker Ian Wright. He's one of the founders of Tesla Motors but these days he is setting aside luxury electric cars to tackle a much larger problem: How to make medium-duty trucks more efficient.

From a distance, this green tractor looks pretty much like any other International ProStar daycab. But the powerplant is very different. Senior Editor Tom Berg drives the TransPower battery-electric tractor.

California-based TransPower has installed its ElecTruck battery-electric drive system into the second of eight trucks of this design that it plans to convert this year and place into drayage service near the L.A./Long Beach ports.

Getting office-supply products to Staples’ 2,000-plus stores around the world and directly to business customers takes more than pushing an Easy button, even if Mike Payette, director for fleet equipment, has four of the advertising-theme props, “in four languages,” on his desk.